Education

We have on and off always been talking about education in SG / for Eliza. And some of the books i've read have been really an inspiration. Ww is not for early schooling and if possible homeschool or have her in a good school (not the usual ones you can find in SG unless it's a International school..but then again, i have no idea what and Int' school is like anyway).

Still, it is hard to resist comparing with or keeping up with the educational flow that's going on here. A lot is about the results. (ask a teacher and the many awards their school they go after) Somewhere in pri school, i also knew that it was the results that i needed to achieve, it wasn't good getting below 75marks. It's hard to draw the line between the real learning or the learning to get the results. And we didn't want to put her in a system like that, that it is all about succeeding, getting the grades (yes even when the school is not blatantly saying it's about the grades). And me being part of the system, can't help but feel like that at times too. Now that Eliza's still young, these things are far far away. Still it's one of the major things we'll be going through as she gets older. I am not too certain whether i want to send Eliza to playgroup/preschool, but Ww is sure that she doesn't need to till she's at least 3. (any hopefully if we do go overseas, i may have no choice but to do pre-school homeschool..which isn't all that bad).
When i read an article from a mum's blog, and showed it to Ww, the more he's sure school isn't necessary for Eliza at this age. (check out the 2 links which the mum put in the blog). I remember him mentioning about it that kids pick up bad habits from kids and it is the adults that they pick up good habits from, even before he read it.

“We find that attendance in preschool centers, even for short periods of time each week, hinders the rate at which young children develop social skills and display the motivation to engage classroom tasks, as reported by their kindergarten teachers” (Loeb et al 2005).

We might guess that the problem lies with poor quality preschool centers. But even high income children—-who presumably attend the better preschools—-showed increased behavioral problems if they had attended at least 15 hours a week (Loeb et al 2005). Moreover, the effect is dosage-dependent. The more time children spend in centers, the worse their behavior becomes.

Researchers found that the more time kids spent in non-maternal care during the first 4.5 years of life, the more behavioral problems they developed."

Anyway, on another note, I love the principles by Charlotte Mason, quote:
"Her method, the Charlotte Mason method, is centered around the idea that education is three-pronged: Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life.

By “Atmosphere,” Charlotte meant the surroundings in which the child grows up. A child absorbs a lot from his home environment. Charlotte believed that atmosphere makes up one-third of a child’s education.

By “Discipline,” Charlotte meant the discipline of good habits — and specifically habits of character. Cultivating good habits in your child’s life make up another third of his education.

The other third of education, “Life,” applies to academics. Charlotte believed that we should give children living thoughts and ideas, not just dry facts. So all of her methods for teaching the various school subjects are built around that concept.

For example, Charlotte’s students used living books rather than dry textbooks. Living books are usually written in story form by one author who has a passion for the subject. A living book makes the subject “come alive.”

She taught spelling by using passages from great books that communicate great ideas rather than just a list of words.

She encouraged spending time outdoors, interacting with God’s creation firsthand and learning the living ways of nature."

Sounds quite fun actually. The schools that follow CM's methods have schools in the morning and the afternoons is left for play outdoors. If education was like that, would not it be so much more fulfilling? would not it be so fun? You've got to read her books to get a better sense of what this is about.

I'm currently reading "For The Children's Sake - foundations of education and school" by
Susan Shaeffer Macaulay.

Hmm...the next thing I'll need to do is to quit my job.